Burlington temple takes ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Friday

Aug 29, 2014 at 4:32 PMAug 29, 2014 at 5:17 PM

By Chris Warrenchwarren@wickedlocal.com

Last Tuesday, Temple Shalom Emeth President Steve DiOrio blew the ram's horn to gather the congregation. It is called a “shofar” and is used on important occasions, such as on the Jewish New Year and after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.This time it was used to rally people to participate in the “Ice Bucket Challenge” to raise funds and awareness about ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.More than 20 temple members rose to the B.Y.O.B. (bring your own bucket) and B.Y.O.I. (bring your own ice) occasion. They also remembered member Jeff Kline's mother and member Ann Marie Sagal's mother, who both succumbed to ALS several years ago.Rabbi Susan Abramson suggested the challenge for a number a reasons. “I wanted to find a way for the temple to do a mitzvah (good deed). It is the temple's mission to participate in Tikkun Olam, helping the world to be a better place. I am always looking for opportunities for us to do this. I was trying to think of a way to get the temple challenged, since I had not yet seen any other temple community do this,” she said.At the end of completing their challenge, the Temple Shalom Emeth participants challenged the members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Bedford to take the Ice Bucket Challenge.According to the ALS Association, the Ice Bucket Challenge has taken the nation by storm and so far has received more than $88 million in donations to fund research. According to the association's website, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the brain and spinal chord —and it is always fatal— as the brain loses control to initiate muscle movements such as swallowing and breathing. More than half of the people diagnosed with ALS succumb to the illness within five years.Since the ALS Association's inception in 1985, it has funded $99 million in research to discover the genetic causes of ALS and to conduct clinical trials for new medicines that may help people live longer, with the ultimate goal of finding a cure.With more than $88 million in donations pouring in from the Ice Bucket Challenge during the past few weeks, Barbara Newhouse, president and CEO of the ALS Association, said in a statement, “Every day, given this dramatic increase in funding, the scope of what's possible when it comes to fighting this disease has changed. We are simply awe-struck at the incredible generosity that has poured forth to help fight this disease.”